Whom the Gods Adore
by mascaret
Summary: Post Six of One. Laura finds out that Bill gave Kara a ship.


_Whom the Gods Adore_

There would be no forgiveness for her this time.

Sitting at the desk in Bill's quarters, Laura knew that.

She had been all too aware of it hours ago when she first began crossing names off of her mental list.

Saul would be the obvious candidate, but she wouldn't do that to Bill.

Karl Agathon could never be persuaded to do it.

Lee's name hadn't even made it onto the list. All his life Lee had shown he was capable of betrayal – he had betrayed his father for Laura, he had betrayed his wife for Kara, he had betrayed Laura for Baltar - but Laura knew he wasn't capable of this betrayal.

She would have attempted it herself again – had in fact gone to the brig the hank of her own hair clutched in her hand like a talisman – but when she arrived there she found that the Admiral had left orders not to admit her. All her attempts to pull rank had gotten her was the offer to summon the Admiral for the two of them to hash it out.

Her personal guard was similarly banned.

She had considered getting one of the Pegasus crew. Despite all their time together, despite all that they had been through together, still there existed a division between the two crews. Bill refused to recognize it – much like he refused to recognize so many other things – but she saw it.

But in the end, she had settled on the man now seated before her.

When her cancer had first returned everything had seemed so clear again. Her place in all this, what it was that she had to do. Now … now she wasn't sure what to believe. Was she the dying leader whose role it was to lead her people to Earth as was foretold in scriptures written thousands of years ago? Or was she just another dying woman like her mother before her?

Laura looked across at the man patiently waiting before her. For so long now this man had had faith in her. He had believed in her long before she had believed in herself. Right now as she was awash in doubt she needed that faith.

There were two possible explanations for Kara's reappearance – one far more likely than the other. Either Kara was the gods' chosen one or she was a cylon.

The evidence supporting Kara being a cylon was so blatantly overwhelming you had to be an Adama to overlook it.

Kara had no explanation for how she had survived two months with no food, no water, and only a forty-eight hour supply of oxygen. She could offer no explanation for how she had traveled so far in a ship that had no FTL capability and only enough fuel to last hours.

How exactly did Bill reason it all away?

Did Bill really think it a miracle? That the Lords of Kobol themselves plucked Kara's viper from the certain death of that gas giant and with a two month delay deposited it back in their midst? That Kara reappearing at the exact moment that the cylons did was a mere coincidence?

The only question in Laura's mind was whether there ever really was a Kara Thrace. Had a real Kara once existed and been replaced – certainly there had been ample opportunity both before and after the initial attacks? Or had she always been a cylon?

Now with the advantage of hindsight so many of Kara's feats took on a different hue.

When Kara and her first viper had been lost had it taken so long to find her because of poor visibility? Or because the cylons first had to grow a new one and then find a way to put it on the moon's surface without being detected?

The way she survived countless run ins with the cylon raiders as part of the fleet's Combat Air Patrol while so many of her fellow pilots weren't so fortunate.

Laura had once before on their path to Earth relied upon Kara's ability to always beat the odds, but now even Kara's successful return from her trip to Caprica to retrieve the arrow of Apollo was tainted by suspicion.

The cylon retreat on Caprica when they had Kara and the Caprican refugees pinned down?

How had Laura not seen it then? There had been so many signs, so many little hints.

When the cylons had arrived on New Caprica Kara had been immediately taken – but taken to where? Was she held in detention and tortured psychologically as they had been led to believe? Or was she off doing cylon things with the other cylons?

The shot that Laura had fired – had it missed by the grace of the gods or as Laura's eyes had closed in anticipation of the gun's retort had Kara evaded the bullet with the lightening quick reflexes that only a cylon could possess?

Even her viper was as unmarred as the day it went into service. It was like the cylons weren't even bothering with the pretense anymore.

Still Bill refused to see it.

He thought herreturn a miracle.

Finally beginning to speak, she asked. "Do you still believe in me? Do you still believe me to be the dying leader foretold of in the scrolls of Pythia? Do you believe it to be _my_ destiny to lead this fleet to Earth?"

"You know that I do." The man before her assured her.

"Then I have a task for you."

Bill's resolve was crumbling. She could see it in his eyes every time the subject turned to Kara. He wanted so desperately to believe.

Bill was going to give in to Kara. He was going to turn the fleet around.

She couldn't let that happen.

She hadn't come this far, she hadn't made all of the compromises and all of the sacrifices that she had, she hadn't traded off her own soul bit by bit just to see it end like this.

Bill would never be able to do what needed to be done. She was sure of that. As sure as she was that if it had been Billy to step out of that viper she would be equally incapable of action and equally incapable of ever forgiving Bill for doing what needed to be done.

If Bill was right, if it really was a miracle – if Kara really was the gods' chosen one, if the gods _had_ interceded on her behalf, then they would just have to do it again because Laura was not going to trust her with the fate of this fleet.

And so here she was commissioning one of Kara's jailors.

"I feel I should warn you that should you agree to accept this task, even with this -" With a steady hand, she offered over the paper. " - I cannot guarantee your safety."

Solemnly Corporal Venner took it from her.

"This very well may be your own death warrant that I am handing you."

He held her gaze a moment before looking down at the paper.

She watched his eyes widen as he read it and realized just what it was that he had been handed. Kara Thrace's execution order complete with the Presidential seal and her signature.

There was a tremble in his voice as he questioned not her judgment, not her destiny, but logistics. "Should I go to the ship she was moved to to do it or will she be coming back to _Galactica_?"

"Back to _Galactica?_" Her lips curled into a mirthless smile. "The Admiral moved her off of the _Galactica_?"

Venner nodded.

"It would seem that I have my answer." Her hand wasn't nearly so steady as she reached back across the table to reclaim the paper. "Thank you, Corporal. That will be all."

As the paper slipped from his grasp, Venner expressed his confusion. "I don't understand."

"You should go now."

"Do you still want me to –"

The smile still gracing her lips, she again dismissed him. "I'd like to be alone now."

_finis_


End file.
